A road to recovery, health & happiness: Australia, I love thee!

Hi Everyone! I've been so busy lately I've had no time to blog recently. I sit at the computer all day at work so I barley want to get on here on week nights. Today is my day off (Friday) and sadly I've been on the computer all day... but for good reasons! This morning I got to skype with my home boy, Nate and all day I've been booking travel arrangements to go to Melbourne in a few weeks... can't wait!

Last weekend was a lot of fun! On Friday I joined a gym that is on the first floor of my office building. On the way home my friend Kari and I got lost in Circular Quey, the train station in front of the Opera house, and ended up in the great botanical garden! It is a huge beautiful garden located right in the middle of the city. When I got home, I ate a home cooked Italian pasta dinner made by my very best Italian friend, Mario. He is such a good cook. Everyone prepared for a fun night out to celebrate Claudio's 21st Birthday! Us American's showed him how to do it right for your 21st. First we went to side bar where there was a 2 man band playing American hits. I got a shout-out for knowing the words to Free Fallin' :) We all had a blast and eventually split into groups and some of us went to Scubar- a backpackers bar. After a long night out I slept in til 1 the next day and it felt wonderful.

On Saturday it was very rainy. We went to Paddy's Market for lunch and some shopping. It's a right near Chinatown so a lot of the shops are run by Asian people and it's cheap- not something you see in Sydney very often. On the way back from down town Sydney we stopped at blockbuster to pick up some dvds for the week. Saturday night we spent the night to watch a movie. On Sunday I went to Manly beach with Claudio, Yves and Mario and some people from their school. We took the ferry to Manly and spent the day playing beach volleyball. It was beautiful weather and I got to teach all my foreign friends how to throw flick (frisbee term). They all love it! On Sunday night me and the boys ordered pizza and watched more movies.

My third week at work was awesome. My company, the Export Council of Australia, is getting super busy planning an up coming event. I got to attend a few more meetings this week and wrote an article that went to the website and blog, only the first of many. Also, I've been going to the gym everyday which is awesome! I took a body pump, boxing, yoga and spin class. They were all sweet-as and Aussie's really know how to power through a work out.

On Monday night some of us went out to celebrate my best girl, Kayla's, 22nd Birthday. We went to a mexican joint called El Loco and made happy hour by 1 minute. After dinner we went to hole-in-the-wall bar called century bar for $3 drinks- cheapest I've seen in Sydney. Then we went to McDonald's and got 30 cent soft served ice cream cones. This is literally the ONLY thing in Sydney that you will find cheaper than in the US.

On Tuesday after work I met Claudio for dinner in Circular Quey and then we went to Opera Bar, a classy high end bar right next to the Opera house. We met an American bar tender there from California. This week was busy busy but I'm glad it's over because I like being able to relax now.. ahhh.

Last night we welcomed in a new intern/resident, Andrew from Florida and everyone went out to Scubar. We had a lot of fun dancing in the black lights. A group of med students came in their white lab coats. It was a riot. This weekend I am going to take it easy, but still make good use of my time here in Sydney. Next week should be super busy at work but I'm looking forward to it. Until next time~

Peace, love and no worries

~mrlb